1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to tools for data processing, and more particularly related to an intellectual asset protocol for defining data exchange rules and formats for universal intellectual asset data objects, such as documents.
2. Related Art
Intellectual asset documents may include patents (U.S. and foreign), patent applications (U.S., PCT and foreign), trademarks (U.S. and foreign), trademark applications (U.S. and foreign), copyrights, trade secrets, license agreements, joint venture agreements, or any other type of data object that involves intellectual property. The efficient management of intellectual asset documents requires a structured way of exchanging data that represents one or more of these intellectual asset documents and/or the systems and processes that relate to them. These processes may include license tracking; audits and payments; patent and trademark prosecution and workflow; patent and trademark maintenance fee payment tracking and reporting; reporting and visualization of intellectual asset meta data; electronic submission of patent and trademark application; and so forth. Prior to the present invention, this structured way of exchanging data did not exist.
Individuals and/or industries that deal with intellectual asset documents (or are involved in the intellectual asset domain) are comprised of many different players. For example, one player is the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, another player is the European Patent Office, another player is an enterprise resource planning manager, yet another player is a patent applicant, still another player is a patent or trademark licensor, etc. These players operate at times independent of each other, yet at other times must come together to facilitate an objective. For example, a patent applicant must work with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to prosecute his or her patent and/or trademark application. When two or more players come together to facilitate an objective, it would be advantageous for the players to operate with an electronic version of one or more intellectual asset data objects or documents. However, this often does not happen due to the lack of data exchange rules and formats for intellectual asset data objects. Without a standard definition of data exchange rules and formats for intellectual asset documents, the progress of the players' common objective is likely to be hindered.
Cooperation among players in the intellectual asset domain is hindered because, often, the players use different formats for intellectual asset documents. With the computerization of industries today and the use of the Internet by many different players in the intellectual asset domain, the use of different formats of intellectual assets documents hinders the efficient exchange of electronic intellectual asset documents among the different players.
Therefore, what is needed an intellectual asset protocol for defining data exchange rules and formats for universal intellectual asset documents to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of exchanging electronic intellectual asset data objects. In addition, the protocol should be sufficiently flexible and full-featured to enable other types of functions, such as but not limited to, the management of intellectual asset transaction data for various business processes. The invention defines a standard for intellectual asset meta-data, and thus provides an effective and efficient way to exchange data between disparate intellectual asset software systems and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.